Robert Frost

I'm a believer in the literal word. I think it's the literal word that counts.

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

I've never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

I am not a humanitarian. I am a human being.

There are two kinds of teachers: those who fill you with so much that you can't move, and those who give you just a little prod that sets you off in the right direction.

The best way out is always through.

I never ask of a pupil who has written a poem, 'What does it mean?' I always ask, 'How did you arrive at that?'

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.

I'm not a nature poet. I have only written two poems without a human being in them.

The one thing it's for is to be a poem, and it's nothing else. And it's not for anything but that.

The world is full of people who are always wanting to be somebody else.

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.

I had a lover's quarrel with the world.

Freedom lies in being bold.

I'm not a symbolist. I'm a realist.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in a clarification of life—not necessarily a great clarification, such as Lowell or Emerson or Wordsworth might have given, but a momentary stay against confusion.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.